Bishop William Skylstad, a former president of the U.S. bishops' conference, believes that the Eucharist is the solution for today's anxious and frenetic society.
“There’s a sort of unbridled restlessness which touches our lives and touches the life of the culture, constantly searching and sometimes searching in the wrong way. But Jesus today is the answer,” he said in a homily at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome April 24.
“Indeed, as St. Augustine commented some centuries later, ‘Our souls are restless, Lord, until they rest in thee’; for it is the Eucharist that gives us rest and peace and life, and for that we can be very grateful.”
The 78-year-old Bishop Skylstad headed the U.S. bishop's conference 2004-2007 and is currently serving as apostolic administrator of the Baker Diocese in Oregon.
He is now in Rome with 14 other bishops from the northwest states on their ad limina pilgrimage April 23-27.
During their brief visit to the Eternal City, the bishops from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska will also meet with Vatican officials and Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the health of the Catholic Church in their region.
Bishop Skylstad also proposed to his fellow bishops that Our Lady was another source of refuge for modern society. He told them that the Basilica of St. Mary Major was one of 26 churches in Rome to be named after the mother of Jesus, describing this as “an astonishing number” and reflecting “how powerfully she has impacted upon us in the Church, where the honoring of Mary has become deeply embedded in our Catholic DNA.”
The basilica, he explained, was built in the year 432 in the wake of the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was declared to be Mother of God (“Theotokos” in Greek).
“As we pray for our folks back home in the dioceses in which we serve, today we honor Mary,” concluded Bishop Skylstad, “and we ask that she continues to mother the Church and continues to mother the dioceses in which you and I serve; and that she continues to mother us as bishops, that we might be servants of the Lord.”
Bishops from the Northwest held meetings with the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Congregation for Divine Worship and Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life April 24. On April 25, they offered Mass at the tomb of St. Peter in the Vatican basilica.
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Catholics need to be taught Who Jesus is, and how that knowlege will affect their lives. It is only after having a knowlege of the Holy Trinity that we can understand Communion in the Body of Christ.
If we don’t have Jesus in our hearts when we come to Mass, we won’t have any more of Him in us, if we eat an entire Chalice of Consecrated Hosts. Further, Catholics need to be taught about a Sovereign and Triune Godhead, and revere, worship and adore Him, and focus less on anyone or anything else that distracts from what has eternal value.
Bishops need to focus on Jesus. Rome needs to focus on Jesus. Our local parishes need to focus on Jesus. After all, even the Holy Spirit focuses on Jesus.
The gospels reveal Mary’s compassion and intersession at the marriage feast in Cana for the host and their guests on such a joyous celebration. She quite obviously knew her son’s capabilities at this time and also the love they jointly shared for all God’s people. Without hesitation she went to her son as the great intercessor that she is for mankind and stated simply “They have no wine,” giving Him, the one she knew to be the “son of the most high” an opportunity to reveal Himself and save the situation. Not yet ready to identify Himself in public but desiring to satisfy His mother’s wishes, He lovingly surrendered and asked “What would YOU have me do?” She, knowing her place in God’s redemptive plan as well as her motherly pride in her son, turned to the servants and told them to “Do what ever HE tells you.” This exchange and the efforts of the “servants”, marking His first miracle, was a foreshadowing of the situation today as we await Christ’s return for His “coming out” eternal wedding with His church. Likewise, through our priest and the Eucharist we, as transformed repentant sinners, can enjoy the “good wine” of salvation and eternal union with Him which began as the life giving water of our baptism.
The stain of Satan’s deceitful plan on mankind in the garden by using “the woman” is about to have a full measure of justice returned upon its author and those who have joined him. We are about to witness the testimony of God when He told the deceiver “she will crush your head with her heel”.
Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, asks that we close our eyes and ears to the lure of Satan’s call and learn from her, the mother of mercy and love of the Father for his children, and “do what ever” Christ has told us. No, we are definitely not alone nor on our own as we go out to gather in Christ’s sheep for Him. We need to realize the spiritual plurality we possess at all times. We have Christ the living truth of the gospels, the Holy Spirit as sent by our Lord, and also His blessed mother whose ultimate destiny was foretold by our loving Father. We must “Fear not for I am with you always, even until the end of this world”.
Bill Sr. - There is a danger in taking one verse out of the Bible, and creating new doctrines from it, based on having thought about it way too much. It was not Mary that crushed Satan’s head with her heel, it was Jesus, on the Cross. References to the “Woman” refers to the Jewish nation, from which Jesus was born. Honor must be given to Mary, but her role must not usurp the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and God, the Father.
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